Estero Bay 02\05\13

[JSTickum]

What a great couple of day's in Estero Bay this week , I fished a 2 daier with DaveO's buddy from the great north (Chi ca go) Ryan , who had no problem being down here this week . Tuesday was the best day with the air temps on the rise , a slow incoming tide all day and a slow rise in water temp , it was a cold 63degrees in the am and by 2 pm it was a whole 67 degrees . The goal was to put Ryan on some fish , he has done very little fishing in Florida and Dave O talked me up a storm while he was up north ( no presure here ) thank goodness the weather was good . We started out the morning up by the passes doing a little scouting for bait and boucing some bucktails , well there is still no bait , but pleanty of Sheepies , we cought a couple and Dave O pulled in this nice one to 16 inches , which made it's way to the box .

After that guy we changed gears and decied to move into the bay and hit the grass flats , here is where we found pleanty of Trout to play with , I was in the process of showing Ryan how to use artificals when bam this 23 inch Red interupts my leason

Well now Ryan is stoked , he is all ready for his , I teach him a little more on how to work the lure through the grass and Bam he is on with his first Red , a nice 25 incher

he made it to the live well , while we looked for a bigger one . a couple more Trout and 2 more Reds which were around the 20 inch mark , we decided to head in , Ryan was getting that common red tan that most northern's get down here , so we headed back to the docks . As we headed , Dave tells me how nice it would be to get Ryan a nice Snook to finish his first slam , so I said will check the docks and see if we could fix that and BAM Ryans first Snook

Wensday was alot different , it was alot warmer , we made it out to some other grass flats to check them out , same pattern as the day before , Trout all over the flats . We moved through the area with a couple of short Reds around , Dave and I were discussing that the Reds when they are shorter they have more spots , well right after that discussion a 14 spoter graced us , he went about 20 inches

After that we called it a day , Ryans 85fps was not working , around 11am , went back to the house washed the gear and sparked up the grill for some Blackend Redfish on rolls , sorry guys no pics of the sandwhiches , they barely made it off the grill .All except the Sheepies and the 25 inch Red were released , the gear was 6 and 8 lb , all artis for the Reds , Snook , and Trout , Srimp tiped jigs for the Sheepies . Notes we saw a giant Jewfish in 4 feet of water at least 300 lbs moving around on the center flats ( I guess he had the same plan we had ) and pleanty of wildlife aswell , also there are alot of manatees moving into the shallows so keep a close eye out for them . Go catch'um up guys and I hope this helps ya all out .
JSTick'um

[gruntking]

Dave and the guys let you fish in the harbor! I'm stunned!

Nice fishing for Feb.

[Binder]

Nice work Jim!! Great report

[nuclearfishn]

Nice spots on the last pic.

[dtobias]

Good report Jim....hope to get out later this coming week.

[KindaQuik]

Nice detailed report!

[Angler Systems]

Solid report and photos, enjoyed it.

[JSTickum]

Thanks All , this week has been a little slow , Tuesday and Wensday this coming week look like great fishing weather , so hopefully ya guys are going to get out there